Speaker · 1:03:35
News.
Kara Swisher · 1:03:35
Oh, stop it. You're not reading any of them, Scott, so just move along. Anyway, thank you guys so much. Alright, Scott. One more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails.
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— Predictions segment begins —
Kara Swisher · 1:05:53
Okay, Scott. Let's hear some wins and fails. Did you like to go first?
Scott Galloway · 1:05:57
Sure. No. You go first, Kara.
Kara Swisher · 1:05:59
I would say the win. I thought the Super Bowl was, again, like the Grammys, a real win for entertainment and real people. It was lovely. It had a lovely vibe to it, and I liked it a lot. And I don't love a sports event. And I would say... I gotta say a win goes to Joe Biden's social media manager. Did a great... I was really impressed. I thought it was very funny and tongue in cheek, and I think they're doing a fantastic job. I I don't think it's gonna get through to as many people, but I'm glad they're on TikTok, the communist party and all. My fail was Donald... As I said earlier, Donald Trump with NATO. I get there's issues around NATO. Hello. Nice to meet you. So democracy is tough, but what he has what he has said is dangerous. It's it's dangerous, especially the signals it's given to someone like Putin. My only non worry about that is Putin's incompetent. And as you see, he can't he can't even win in Ukraine. He's a world power. So that would be the only thing. But what... To put so many people in harm's way like this is he should not be president of The United States. I I I get why people wanna vote for him. I'm not trying to shame you, but this is... To to wish for the economy to go down was heinous enough, this is really, really, really dangerous. You know, in... It's... Everyone's world will be crushed economically and if something like this happens. It's it's an invitation to dictatorship, and it's an invitation to dictators.
Scott Galloway · 1:07:23
Well, can you imagine how Finland feels? Finland, one of the big victories of NATO, the European Union, and our... The brave Ukrainians and and Biden and the EU's coming together around pushing back on the Russian invasion of Ukraine is Finland decided to join NATO.
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Scott Galloway · 1:07:42
They're taking their young men and women and putting them in a NATO uniform, and you're saying that the primary funder... Let's be honest, NATO's, for the most part, controlled by The US. They're now saying... We're now saying to Finland who shares an 800 mile border with Russia, the guy that might be president is saying that Putin should attack NATO. I mean, anyway
Kara Swisher · 1:08:06
And that's what he said. Don't say he suggested it. He said it. He's a transactional fuck is what he is. He thinks it's... I think everything's a real estate deal, and he isn't really that good at real estate either. So please, for... It's not real estate. This is not real estate. These aren't condos in Queens. It's not. This guy's wholly unqualified to be the commander in chief, wholly and dangerous.
Scott Galloway · 1:08:27
Okay. So my win is I can't help it. I've said, young people, you shouldn't buy... Try and find the needle in the haystack. You should buy the haystack. Buy low cost ETFs and index funds. But I love stock picking. I think it's fun. I think you should take a quarter or maybe even a third year capital and try and find outsized alpha and gains in individual stocks. You learn a lot about the markets if you're so inclined, most people aren't, but if you are. But one of my holdings, and I'm talking about own book here and it's confirmation bias, but I think there's some logic here. I think Airbnb, just more of a prediction than a win, is gonna have a monster earnings at the close of business today. We release on a Tuesday. I'm still just in absolute awe of Meta's earnings. And I'm not in awe of the company. I think Mark Zuckerberg to have all that kind of money and not protect people means he's a boy whose masculinity never took over, and his his his intelligence and his skills have vastly outpaced his empathy and masculinity. I I think he's a lost man. But the earnings were so striking to grow to grow revenues 25% and while reducing headcount 25%. I've never seen anything like that. And I tried to suss out what are the things that really drove it. And it was one, I compiled who are the biggest purchasers or who has the most NVIDIA AI enabled GPUs on order, and the two biggest are Microsoft and Meta. They have the most on order. And I don't think there's any accident that Microsoft became the most valuable company in the world, and Meta just absolutely blew away its numbers. And I was talking to the team today. I believe that that these GPUs are basically that this move to AI is the equivalent of corporate Ozempic, and that it is... It's giving them such incredible efficiency, they can shed weight like they've never before. And I was thinking about Airbnb. They also... What else is Meta? Meta is in a consumer space. Consumer spending is much more robust than people think. It's the biggest player in the space. We're moving to an economy at Aswath Damodaran on Prop G the other day. And he's like, It's not necessarily a good thing, but size matters and it keeps increasingly matter. And the biggest company in every category is garnering more and more efficiency and more and more market share. Consumer spending vastly outpaced any estimates. And then I think about I think about Airbnb. They bought an AI company in q three of last year. It wasn't a big purchase, but it reflects that Brian is really thinking about AI. They have not been hiring like crazy. Unfortunately, there's some unfortunate winds at their back, and that is I think young people have sort of... I don't wanna say given up on buying a house, but are taking a lot of that money. And there's just a different gestalt, zeitgeist among young people. If you're in a relationship with someone, you might think, I'm gonna go to Bangkok for three months and work remotely. And that just feeds right into... Now now 20%, I believe, of Airbnb's bookings are for thirty days or longer. Consumer spending is way up. I think they've embraced AI. I think you're looking at a... They're the leader in their space.
Kara Swisher · 1:11:26
I I don't think it's just young people. You know, we're renovating a house. I would look... I... First, before looking for something, I went to Airbnb.
Scott Galloway · 1:11:33
And not only that, anyone who's anyone who's actually looked at the pricing Airbnb, I I hate to say this, Airbnb has monopoly power. And look look at the fees that charge.
Kara Swisher · 1:11:40
VRBO. Yeah. There's VRBO. They're pretty good.
Scott Galloway · 1:11:43
That's... VRBO to Airbnb is what Lyft is to Uber, and that is... It's kind of cute.
Kara Swisher · 1:11:48
In certain areas, they're good, especially with older people and older. Anyway, yeah. Yes, I like them both.
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Scott Galloway · 1:11:53
Anyways, I just think and this is a prediction, and granted any disclosure, I own the stock but I think you're going to see a monster earnings call tonight from Airbnb that's going to surprise everyone to the upside. And quite frankly, the market already senses Stock's up 7% today. My fail is I was really moved and shocked by... I mean, not shocked. Shocked but not surprised. Someone put
— Predictions segment ends —
Speaker · 1:12:13
out this Instagram Reel with Julia Roberts talking about
Scott Galloway · 1:12:15
this picture with her niece. Did you see this?
Kara Swisher · 1:12:17
Yeah. She looked adorable. Emma Roberts.
Scott Galloway · 1:12:19
This is so cute. She's with her niece, cute thing, playing cards in the morning.
Kara Swisher · 1:12:23
They look adorable.
Scott Galloway · 1:12:24
Yeah. And there are literally hundreds of comments about how she's not aging well, and look how shitty she looks, talking about what's failed cert, just really going after her looks. And I thought to myself, okay. If if one of the most beautiful women in history gets attacked like this, what are the chances that our daughters get to their thirties on
Kara Swisher · 1:12:50
And she made this point.
Scott Galloway · 1:12:51
Yeah. And I really appreciate her saying that.
Kara Swisher · 1:12:54
Yeah. She made a very big point of it. Good for her.
Scott Galloway · 1:12:56
And she came out swinging. She said, this is just such bullshit. And I thought... And here's the thing, fairly or unfairly, the reality is women are disproportionately evaluated based on their appearance, and men are disproportionately evaluated based on their economic well-being, economic prosperity. You would never say to a man, you are so weak and such a failure and have so few skills, you will not be able to take care of your kids. You would never say that to a man. You you would never go on social media and say, I... I've observed you, and you will never be able to take care of your children. You would think that is... You wouldn't... That is a low blow. You would never say that. But it's open season on women's looks.
Kara Swisher · 1:13:42
I agree. I liked what she had to say. She was clear headed in doing it. The... I have to say dunkery has really got... I've about had it with dunking. Like, I don't mind if it's at, like, big famous people, and some of it's funny. I like it when it's funny and not so righteous, but the righteousness and the ability just to say nasty shit out loud is really... It's a disease of Trump. It's a disease of Trump.
Scott Galloway · 1:14:04
I'm a sexist. I make fun of men's looks. I objectify them. With women with women, you don't make fun of their looks.
Kara Swisher · 1:14:10
Yeah. Oh, I agree. I don't think you should make fun of anyone's looks. But...
Scott Galloway · 1:14:13
Yeah. Our society disproportionately evaluates women, and young women especially are told that their entire net worth, their self esteem, unfortunately, should come from their looks. You would never walk into a restaurant and start and see someone famous and go, Jesus Christ, you're aging poorly. He would never say that. It's not a free speech issue. And the thing that was really unfortunate about it is a lot of these comments you can tell are from men.
Kara Swisher · 1:14:36
Yeah. And it's just like,
Scott Galloway · 1:14:37
Jesus Christ. Welcome to
Kara Swisher · 1:14:38
gamer gay. This is... I agree.
Scott Galloway · 1:14:40
Your mother teach you anything? So... And and everyone goes to, well, it's free speech. It's great about the Internet. You would never behave this way. You would never go on Twitter and say to a young man, you you can't speak English. Your logic is so poor. You will never be able to take care of your children because you'll be such an economic failure. You would never say that.
Speaker · 1:14:59
You wouldn't.
Scott Galloway · 1:15:00
Yeah. Anyway, so my my fail is is social media has given mostly men license to really attack just in a... And it... This is the this is the opposite of masculinity. These guys think that they're being tough. You move to protection, and women are especially sensitive because our society disproportionately evaluates them based on their looks. And it's not right, but it is. No man should ever disparage a woman's looks ever. My win goes to Julia Roberts for speaking out and clapping back. I thought it was I thought it was a nice moment for her to say, you know what? Yeah. What are you thinking?
Kara Swisher · 1:15:44
What are you Yeah. I would agree.
Scott Galloway · 1:15:46
Thank you.
Kara Swisher · 1:15:46
Been amazing. When someone comes at me with, oh, it's my free speech, I'm like, fine, but you're an asshole. Like, that's what you are. You're an asshole. That's simply what you are. Anyway, speaking of relationships and men and women together, Scott and I went on Esther Perel's podcast, Where Should We Begin for some couples counseling? Because we love each other so deeply. You'll be able to hear the entire session next week, and here's a little tease.
Speaker · 1:16:10
Sometimes people present themselves as tough. Yeah. But for the purpose of covering. What often is a very tender
Kara Swisher · 1:16:21
Yes.
Speaker · 1:16:22
Yes. Gentle.
Kara Swisher · 1:16:23
I think you're talking about me. I am actually tough, but I also can be tender. It's okay to be tough.
Speaker · 1:16:27
I mean, we've met maybe three or four times that we have spoken together. I I don't think of you as tough, but I do sometimes think you can be intimidating, which Scott who presents as tough doesn't intimidate me at all. Whereas
Scott Galloway · 1:16:44
God, our our... Literally, our narcissism knows no bounds.
Kara Swisher · 1:16:47
I know. It's true. But that's... It was good. Anyway, that'll drop in the pivot feed on Tuesday, February 20. It's very enjoyable.
Scott Galloway · 1:16:53
What the world needs. More Scott and Kara.
Kara Swisher · 1:16:55
Yeah. Anyway, we wanna hear from you, by the way. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show or call 85551 Scott, that is the show. We'll be back on Friday for more. What an enjoyable show once again. I love our relationship. I love our relationship. Read us out.
Speaker · 1:17:14
Today's show is produced by Lara Nayman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Intertaught engineered this episode. Thanks also to Jubrowes and Ilseverio. Nishat Kurwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com/pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.
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